Going Back - A trip to Upstate NY

My first 24 years were in Oregon. My second 24 years were lived in Ithaca NY.

Upstate New York drew me. I was drawn to the Strawberry farm in Trumansburg where my father grew up. My grandfather's grandfather's grandfather farmed there, and my grandmother's immigrant parents settled nearby.

I've been back on the West coast for a while now. This week I'm returning to New York to see my dad, his sister, and to show my new spouse my favorite places in the beautiful Fingerlakes region. The strawberry farm has been sold and is in corn now. The house where Dad and Aunt Barb were born has been remodeled by my cousin who lives there so I'll see the trees that carried lightening down the driveway toward my grandfather sheltering in the barn (It stopped before it reached the barn!) I'll see the blueberry bushes that were planted 50 years ago and the barn where Dad fell and got a concussion. I'll see the lawn where my sister and I played with my young cousin, getting acquainted with our raggedy Ann and Andy dolls - freshly sewn by Grandma.

It'll be August so I'll see lightening bugs and probably a thunderstorm at about 6 pm each day, with lighting.

The land there is woven with family history.

It is also the town where my grandmother was shunned because she was a "foreigner" (her parents were both from Slovakia) and where she struggled to find connection. It is also the land where the Haudenosaunee nations ranged before Europeans came and pushed them off their land. It is close to where General Sullivan destroyed fields and killed horses and decimated villages in the massacre of 1779.

The land is deep with North American history.

It is also the site of the southernmost reach of great glaciers. The rocks I picked out of the fields when planting tomatoes were put there by receding glaciers. Those same glaciers carved out the lakes we call the Fingerlakes.

The land is rich with geological history.


I hope to watch a sunset. To put at least a toe into the cold lake water. To bite into a field-warm peach. To walk to Taughannock Falls and feel the mist blow across my arms.

I hope to commune with the sacred earth, reaching back through time and distance to the divinity that vibrates in all.
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Reverend Amy is preaching in Glens Falls, NY on Sunday the 13th of August.